Curses
by inosine
Summary: Benny catches two jocks bullying Ethan.
1. Prologue

**This is a random idea that popped into my head. I would love to know if readers are interested in seeing this particular story continue. Let me know in the comments :-D  
**

* * *

 _A week after the incident:_

Fuck, they've cornered Ethan.

"Where's your boyfriend," Alex sneers at him. Benny can only just make out the words, but it spurs him into a half trot, elbowing indignant students out of his way.

"You want to kiss your boyfriend, fag?" The other boy taunts. To Benny's horror, Ethan's frame wilts under the harassment.

On a normal day, this torment would be water off Ethan's back. On a normal day, he would care so little that he might not even notice that the harsh words were directed at him. On a normal day, Ethan isn't cursed.

The bullies are laughing at what they assume is their victim's discomfort, when Benny snakes an arm around Ethan's chest. He pulls Ethan against into himself, Ethan's head resting on his shoulder. With a hand on his cheek, Benny's nose to nose with his best friend.

The effect is instantaneous. He watches the grey cloudy murk clear from the seer's eyes as they focus on Benny's face..

"So are you?" Benny asks, consciously stamping down a reflexive instinct to lash out at Alex and his fiend. Consciously ignoring them.

"Wha?" Ethan asks, still dazed from the fading effects of the curse.

"You gonna kiss your boyfriend?" Benny contorts Ethan into a light kiss before he can respond.

"Oh shit, man. You're actually gay? I didn't mean that stuff I said before," Alex says in what he may consider an apology.

" _Et incarnatus est de validis ventis aetatem tuam velabis rapitur ante relinquit_ ," Benny incants with a cold fury.

Alex starts to respond, but when he discovers his voice is gone, he claws at his throat.

"What the hell!" His friend's balled fists drop when he meets the spell caster's gaze.

Benny realizes that Ethan is struggling for his balance. He releases his boyfriend with a small chest bump to get him back upright. Get Ethan on his feet again because that's what really important.

The spell caster shakes the anger out of his hands. The silence spell is permanent until a magic-user lifts it, and is perhaps too strong a punishment for schoolyard bullying. They didn't know the consequences of the curse.

Ethan could die.

Any negative emotions will cloud his soul, eroding the bonds between soul and body. A curse they were lucky to catch before anything bad happened to Ethan.

Benny tugs Ethan away from the bullies, towards the exit they take to walk home. Fortunately Ethan still seems a bit hazy from his near miss. He hasn't said anything about Benny casting an offensive spell on a civilian in public.

Benny will cure Alex tomorrow.

If he seems contrite.

His messenger bag is sitting on his right hip, so Benny directs Ethan to walk on his left side so they can hold hands. Affection is especially effective at cheering up Ethan. Benny will hold Ethan's hand all the way home. Just to be sure.

This curse. Grandma had to induct the Morgans into the secret world of magic so that they would play along with keeping Ethan happy. They all had to play along.

So what else was Benny supposed to say when the second day of the curse, Ethan asked him out.


	2. Cursed

**Alright guys, I'm trying something new. This is literally a first draft. Hopefully the story is interesting enough to make up for any mistakes. Huge thank you to my commenters that encouraged me to continue this story!**

* * *

 _Century'sRain: :" Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it! Have more!_

 _MBAV fan66: I actually used your questions to steer this chapter. I'm leaving some mystery so there's a reason to keep reading. I absolutely agree that Ethan would feel like a burden if everyone had to keep him happy. It's cool that you had the same thought I did :-)_

 _Bye Felicia: Yes, at least one more chapter :-p_

* * *

 _Immediately after the incident:_

The team stumbles into Benny's living room only slightly worse for wear. With the exception of Ethan. Rory dumps Ethan's unconscious form onto the couch unconcerned.

Granted they have been lucky, but Rory seems to have no concept of mortality.

Sarah crouches down next to Ethan and checks the pulse in his wrist.

"Is this going to take much longer?" Erica asks airly, but she still seems relieved when Sarah nods setting Ethan's hand back down neatly.

"His pulse is strong. Physically I think he's fine," she announces to the room in general.

Silence follows her words. Instinctively the group members look at Ethan for direction. Ethan doesn't appear to have any advice.

"We need to uncurse Ethan," Sarah says decisively. "Benny, how do we do that?"

"Uh…" Benny feels slightly dumb for not making that obvious conclusion himself. Benny cracks his knuckles, confidently declaring, "Leave it to me to uncurse the E-man."

But he has no idea how to uncurse Ethan.

He wasn't even there when Ethan got cursed, so he doesn't know what the curse is.

"Rory!" Benny swivels and points to said blonde vampire. Other blonde vampire flops huffily into an arm chair. "You were there when Ethan got cursed." He knows that Rory won't know what latin words were spoken, so instead he asks, "What sounds did you hear?"

"Raaa-ruff. Grrr. Bark! Bark!" Rory pantomimes dog body language.

"Oh good, there was a dog there," Erica deadpans. "That information is so much more important than the actual incantation."

"Yeah Ror, that's not going to help me," Benny replies. "No worries!," Benny holds both hands out as if to hold off the criticism. "Not all hope is lost." Benny looks around the living room for an idea. "GRAAANDMAA!"

Erica snorts.

"What's all the commotion about?" Grandma asks as she walks into the living room from further in the house. But when she sees Ethan, her tone changes. "Ah, I see. Benny I need some of his spit," she commands turning back into the kitchen.

"On it," Benny hops up, and rushes after his grandmother.

"How are you going to get his spit?" Erica asks after him, her tone conveying both disgust and scandal. Given her normal activities, it's not surprising that she would jump to the worse conclusion.

Sarah bites her lip, brows knitting together. "I guess we could tilt his head over a cup. Let his spit drip into it?"

"I'll get a cup!" Rory beams.

Benny comes back with an eye dropper, which he holds up to the room. Benny doesn't want to admit it, but this isn't the first time he's retrieved bodily fluids from Ethan. When you know what you're doing, it's surprisingly easy.

"Oh," Sarah says simply.

Ethan's mouth is already slack and open, so Benny only needs to steady Ethan's head with one hand while he sticks the eyedropper in and squeezes up the requisite salvia. Sarah watches curiously, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Grandma brings out an oversized untitled book that she places gently on the coffee table. She opens the book to a seemingly random middle page where several colorful flower heads had been dried and pressed.

With deft fingers, Grandma plucked a single petal from each flower and laid them in a row on the coffee table. "There. Benny dear, add a drop of Ethan's saliva to each petal." Grandma instructs pointing at the petals.

Benny does as he's told.

He begins with a yellow petal that is merely damped by the drop of spit. He continues down the line until a pink petal reinvigorates into a much larger fresh petal with small white dots.

"Hmm," Grandma considers the petal, but nods Benny to continue down the line. Three petals later, Ethan's saliva brings to life a long curled lime green petal. "Interesting," Grandma says this time.

Benny reaches the end of the line with no further results. Grandma points at a decorative candle with butterflies cut into the sides and it obligingly lights. She drops the pink petal with white dots into the flame, muttering latin under her breath. Benny recognizes it as _reveal to me his sickness._

The flame eats up the petal, turning purple for a brief second. Grandma repeats the process with the curly green petal. This time the flame turns pale yellow.

"Uh huh," Grandma comments under her breath. She carefully turns the pages in the book, her eyes skimming over the lines.

"Well, Ethan's cursed alright," Grandma concludes. "It's the Serenum curse. As long as Ethan is happy, he'll be fine. However, negative emotions will cloud his soul until the connection between his soul and body is destroyed."

"That sounds bad," Rory add sagely.

Grandma nods, "In more unpleasant terms, if something truly upsets him, he could die."

"What can do we do?" Sarah asks, already back on track.

"Well," Grandma considers the question. "For starters, when Ethan wakes up, you can all be nice to him."

Erica scoffs, "More than that. We're gonna have to lie to him. Create a perfect geeky fairland where everything is video games and action figures."

"Well I won't have to lie to him," Benny argues. "I never say anything that upsets Ethan."


	3. Routine

Keeping updates coming quickly because I'm not planning anything out. Nor am I proof-reading. Ask me questions! I'll answer them in future updates.

Many thanks to all my commenters-comments honestly keep me going!

* * *

 _MBAV fan66: Still thinking of some ideas for the reveal to Ethan's parents. Let me know if you have other questions :D_

 _BBCDP2: I like happy endings, so the wait should be worth it._

 _Bye Felicia: Yay! Let me know if there's anything you want to see Benny and Ethan deal with :-)_

* * *

 _Two weeks after the incident:_

Erica and Sarah approach Benny and Ethan in the halls before class.

"Hey Ethan, come hang out with me for a while," Sarah says tugging Ethan's shirt sleeve to pull him away from his boyfriend.

She's giving him a break. They all babysit Ethan in shifts so no one gets too burned out. While no one dares discuss Ethan's situation, they've naturally fallen into a pattern. Mrs. Morgan goes into work late. Benny walks Ethan to school. Sarah takes Ethan before classes start. Benny has three classes with Ethan. Rory covers another two. They have to rely on Tommy Jenkins third period, which is the worst hour of Benny's life.

Yesterday Benny ended up puking in the classroom garbage can. And then instead going to the nurse, he went outside to watch Ethan through the window of his history class. His mind racing through ideas to shake Ethan out of a death-spiral.

He resists until Benny gives him a quick peck on the lips. "I'll see you in class," Benny promises.

Benny sags against the lockers. The relief is exhausting.

"Alright lover boy," Erica says after what she has determined is an appropriate amount of time. "Open your mouth, tilt your head back." She's unscrewing the top off of a brown glass bottle.

"What? Why?" Benny asks suspicious of the older girl's motives.

"The less you know about this, the better," She informs him. It's probably true. Ethan's seer abilities haven't gone off since the incident, but that isn't proof that the curse is blocking his abilities. One morning when Benny grabs Ethan's hand to walk him to school, it could trigger a vision that clues Ethan into the web of lies that his friends and families have spun around him.

Regardless, Benny clamps his jaw shut, shaking his head.

"Fine, we'll do this the hard way." Erica shifts the open bottle into the palm of the hand holding the eye dropping. She yanks Benny's head back by his hair, using his wrist to open Benny's mouth. Wrenching her hand at an od angle, she's able to squeeze two drops into the spell caster's mouth. It may be more like five, but she really doesn't care.

"There, crybaby, I'm done." Erica stalks off while Benny is sputtering.

Everything seems… calmer. He's not worried about Ethan- no that's a lie. He's worried about Ethan, but it's important without hurting. Nothing hurts. Nothing feels. He's just here. Just an invisible eyeball seeing everything around him.

Grandma said it would take a month from the next full moon before the potion to cure Ethan would be complete. Just this morning Benny had been panicking about that fact. Now, Benny remembers, life is one day at a time.

Maybe he'll go see what Ethan and Sarah are up to.


	4. Parents

**Updates keep coming. Today's installment: breaking it to the parents. I don't have a road map for this story (except that I want a happy ending), so let me know if there's a scene you want to see or a question you want answered.**

 **As always, hugs and kisses to my commenters**

* * *

 _MBAV fan66: Yeah, I'm trying to build some angst. Not too much. Just a satisfying amount of angst :-p That way I can have Ethan comfort Benny at the end._

 _Century's Rain: :-D the calming potion will be explained further, but I wanted to touch on the parent's reaction before the story got too far along_

 _TiredofBeingNice: Thanks! I'm definitely trading quality for speed, so I'm glad the storyline is still interesting :-)_

* * *

 _Later the day of the incident:_

Evelyn had not intended to ever tell the Morgan parents about magic. Or at the very least, she had hoped that the truth could have been held off until the boys were in college. She had briefly toyed with the idea of taking Benny and Ethan, and possibly their little blonde friend, Rory, on a trip.

Rory. That was another unfortunate loss that Evelyn had never accounted for. While Benny may think he was lucky to have friends like Ethan and Rory, in reality Evelyn had planned.

Ethan was definitely the bigger win. A seer! It might not have been the most ethical choice, but Evelyn had placed a small hex on a nice house down the block. Two months her and little Benny moved into their new home. Samantha had been only too grateful to take Evelyn up on her offer to watch Ethan during the day.

Rory she found two years later, the brightly annoying toddler taking free reign of the grocery store. His mother largely oblivious to the havoc he caused. Evelyn had seen a spark in his little vibrating body. Too weak to identify. It had gotten stronger as he got older, but was extinguished completely the night that he became a vampire.

Evelyn sighs as she sets out cookies and tea, waiting for Ethan's parents. As tempting as the idea is, she would need to keep Ethan away from his parents for over a month. In the middle of the school year. Very unlikely that the Morgans would agree.

"Benny, dear, you need to go upstairs," Evelyn directs her grandson. The other children have gone home already, but Benny had settled on the couch with Ethan's socked feet in his lap.

"What!? No, Grandma!" Benny predictably protests. A sharp look is enough to send him upstairs.

The wait for the Morgans isn't long. She ushers them into the living room, and…

"Ethan!" Samantha exclaims, rushing over to her son. "Is he alright? What happened?"

"Ethan's fine. If I could have you both sit down for a moment," Evelyn smiles disarmingly.

The Morgans are very accommodating people.

Evelyn gives a brief demonstration of her abilities, setting the teapot to neatly tea into three waiting cups.

"Sugar or cream?" She asks her wide-eyed audience.

Ross clears his throat, silently watching his wife's reaction.

"Yes, please?" Samantha responds a bit at a loss. She watches in awe as a sugar cube floats into her tea cup. She waves her hand above the cup.

"Let me explain," Evelyn begins her introduction to magic. And a brief summary of the activities that Benny and Ethan have been involved in. Very brief.

Through it all, Samantha sips her tea on auto-pilot. Ross, however, has small oh's. Small moments of putting the pieces together. While his wife's grip gets tighter on the cup, Ross nervously fidgets. This could work in Evelyn's favor.

"Ross, you seem to have something to add," Evelyn prompts the man.

"Uh... " Ross smiles, caught out. "My mother was a seer. I stopped believe her at a certain point, but I remember seeing her eyes turn white once."

Evelyn smiles and nods. She sips her tea while the Morgans have an abbreviated spat over the withheld information.

"Clearly this topic warrants further discussion. However I need to impress upon you the critical nature of Ethan's condition and what we need to do to ensure his safety."

When she sees them out the door, promising to send Ethan over when he wakes up, she can tell there will be issues later. Samantha looks ready for drastic measures. Evelyn may have to talk them out of moving away or forbidding magic-related activities.

Evelyn sighs. They are so far off the course she had laid.


	5. Kiss

**Shoutout to MBAV Fan66: I haven't thought about how I want Ethan's grandmother to be involved.** **But it does leave me more room to direct the story in lieu of having a plan :-p Thanks for reading!**

* * *

 _Two weeks after the incident:_

Saturday is going well. Benny came over as early as the Morgans will let him. He fell asleep eating lucky charms and watching cartoons on the living room couch, but Ethan didn't seem to mind. At least when Benny woke up, it was to find his head in Ethan's lap. Fingers through his hair.

"You awake, beautiful?" he had asked, smiling in that small way he has. The one when he's sincerely happy.

Outside of sappy one-liners and occasional pecks, dating hasn't been that different from best-friending.

Case in point, the day had continued with junk food and video games.

Now they were on Ethan's bed doing homework. Ethan's suggestion. If Benny had been cursed, this would've killed him.

"Benny?" Ethan asks, setting down his pen. The beds a mess of papers and textbooks. Both boys have their backs against the wall.

Benny hmms in response. He considers the page of his history textbook one last time, before tossing the book down and turning his full attention to Ethan.

Ethan hedges before blurting out, "Are you ace?"

"Ace?" Benny asks back. Ace of clubs? Ace Ventura pet detective? Ace the psychic super villain working for the Joker?

"It's short for asexual." Ethan answers. He looks concerned, but none of the symptoms of the curse are showing up so he must not be upset.

"No," Benny replies immediately. "I don't think so." Benny accidently knocks his textbook off the bed with his foot.

"It's alright if you are," Ethan continues, not letting the loud noise distract him. "I mean it doesn't bother me. We don't have to do that stuff." Ethan shrugs.

What does Ethan want to hear? Benny honestly has no idea how to respond to this. He can't answer sincerely. Not only because he has to lie to Ethan, but also because whatever potion Erica is feeding him daily drains away his emotions. He has no emotions to express.

Benny's face must clearly express his horror because Ethan hurries to add, "We don't have to break up. We can still date, be boyfriends, without… that stuff."

"Would you be okay with that?" Benny asks. His first concern is Ethan's happiness. He hadn't put much thought into it, but he figures it wouldn't be hard to fake make outs. Fake moans. Fake interest.

As long as they stayed out of crouch territory. Benny hasn't has an excitement-induced erection basically since this whole fiasco began.

"I'm not going to force you to do anything!" Ethan says aghast. His breathing seems a little labored.

"Not what I meant!" Benny back peddles. "It's just a lot to ask, you know. Like could you really be happy knowing we'd never fuck?" He regrets the harshness of the word as soon as it leaves his mouth.

"Yeah B, I'd be be happy." Ethan grabs Benny's hand, massaging his palm with his thumbs. "I'd be with you."

On impulse, Benny leans in to close the gap. His body language telegraphing his intention, so Ethan meets him in the kiss. Slow but soft. A sweet kiss. It's their first real kiss.

And Ethan's smiling again.


	6. Crying

**Maybe after this story is done, I'll put the pieces into chronological order.**

* * *

 _MBAV fan66: I like your take on healthy relationships. A bit of a spoiler: I don't plan on including any smut in this story. Just fluff. The scenario is interesting to me. How Benny would feel about being forced into a relationship, and how he would handle it.  
_

 _Century's Rain: No, don't die! Just enjoy the cute :-p_

* * *

 _Two days after the cure:_

With his parents' permission, Ethan has set up a blanket nest on the living room couch. With a good dozen feel good-romantic movies queued up on netflix and and a pint of peanut butter ice cream, Ethan is ready for a miserable day of grieving his lost relationship. Or really grieving a relationship that was never real.

Jane shuffles into the living room in fuzzy sweatpants and Ethan's sweatshirt. Sniffling she looks nearly as despondent as Ethan feels.

He's surprised to see her, having thought she had gone to school. He can't imagine why should would be upset or why she would be allowed to stay home.

Wordlessly, Jane flops on the couch next to Ethan and yanks the blanket burrito open so she can climb in and cuddle into Ethan's side. He lets her.

They've never been particularly close as siblings, but Ethan wraps his arm around her when she starts sobbing.

"You okay?" Ethan asks stupidly. He hasn't paused the movie, but he's seen it before.

It take's Jane a moment to get control of her breathing enough to speak, "I went off the _permotionem dilatione_ potion today."

That doesn't explain anything.

"What does the permutation dial potion do?" he asks. For his own crying purposes, he had brought kleenex out with him. He grabs a tissue and hands it to his sister.

"It bottles your emotions." Jane blows her nose. "Until you stop taking it."

That doesn't explain much. Should he know why she's upset?

"Why are you crying?" Ethan asks, despite the risk of angering her.

"How dumb are you?" Jane demands, incredulously. "We've all been taking it! For a month and a half, you could've dropped dead any second. A entire month and a half we could only hope that our lies were good enough."

"Oh." Ethan replies at a loss.

"Yeah, oh!" Jane's sarcasm easily pierces her tears. "Jesus, you think we don't care about you?"

Ethan realizes that this is the closest he'll ever get to attending his own funeral. To know how loved you were by how hard they cry.

"No, I know you do. You all do." Ethan has a thought. "Wait, who is everyone?"

"Mom and Dad, of course," Jane lists off. "Mom is going to go off it this weekend, but Dad's gonna wait until next weekend. So we have one functional parent at all times. Benny, Rory and Sarah. I don't know about Erica."

His own heartbreak seems so little compared to what all of his friends and family went through for him. What Benny was willing to do.

"Does having me around help? With the post-potion emotion monsoon?" Ethan asks.

Jane nods sniffling.

He can do that. Be there for Mom and Dad, and Rory and Sarah, and Benny, when they go off the petroleum dice potion.

Actually he feels better now. Focusing on how he can help, rather than his own emotions.


	7. Sobbing

**No plans for this story. There probably be at least one more chapter. People said they wanted to hear Benny's reaction, so that is what this chapter is. Enjoy!**

* * *

 _MBAV Fan66: This chapter has a touch of Ethan and Benny dealing with how their relationship has changed. More fluff!_

 _Century'sRain: And you shall have it! Always happy to have you comment :-)_

 _TiredOfBeingNice: No more nail biting, read now to see how Benny reacts._

* * *

 _Six days after the cure:_

Ethan knocks on the Weirs' door, feeling sheepish. Erica said that Benny had stopped taking the emotion deferment potion this morning. Ethan hates that he feels uncertain of his place with Benny.

"Ethan, dear. I didn't expect to see you," Mrs Weir says in greeting when she opens the door.

"Yeah," Ethan grimaces. "Jane said that it helped her to have me around… So…"

"Of course dear," Mrs. Weir agrees, motioning Ethan in. "He's upstairs." She immediately retreats to the kitchen

Ethan nods, bracing himself for whatever Benny is feeling about him now. For if Benny just wants Ethan to leave.

"Here," Mrs. Weir hands Ethan a mug, catching him at the foot of the stairs. "I was just about to bring this up to Benny. You can bring it to him."

Ethan accepts the mug of what appears to be hot chocolate. Benny's not in his room. Ethan follows the sound of crying into the hallway bathroom, and finds Benny curled up on the tile floor in a blanket next to the toilet.

"Hi," Ethan announces himself to the blanket slug.

The blanket slug freezes the body-shaking sobs.

"I have hot chocolate for you," Ethan offers. He looks down at the mug. "I think?"

The blanket slug sits up, and unpeels to reveal Benny's head and chest. His face is red and puffy. Wet from tears and snot. Ethan wants to kiss the sadness off his face, wants to hug him so hard there's only space for contentedness. But Ethan can't because they're just friends again. Well they were always just friends, but now the lie is over.

Benny extends his arm in expectation, making grabby hands. Ethan hands off the mug carefully, making sure it doesn't spill. He sits down in front of Benny, who sips the hot drink.

After a couple of sips, Benny announces quietly, "It is hot chocolate."

"I um," Ethan tries. "Jane told me all about the emotion delay potion. And how she had been so freaked out about… me dying." Ethan feels selfish saying it, but it is the reason his friends and family were so upset. "And how it helped having me around. During… this." Ethan waves at Benny.

"Yeah," Benny croaks. His voice abused from crying. "It does."

What does he even say? Jane had just crawled onto the couch next to him and watched sappy romantic movies with him. He had looked through old photo albums while his mom sobbed about how her children had grown up so fast.

"We're still friends right?" Ethan grimaces as soon as he says it. This isn't about him. It's supposed to be about helping Benny.

"What?" Benny asks aghast. "Of course! E, why would you even say that?" Benny leans forward to knock on the cabinet under the sink. It's wood.

"It's just," Ethan exhales heavily. "That the stuff I uh made you do-" Ethan can't finish the sentence. He feels tears welling up behind his eyelids.

"Yeah," Benny responds non-committedly. Takes a big gulp of hot chocolate.

Ethan digs the heels of hands into his eye sockets. Desperately trying to not cry. He knows Benny is being evasive. Guilt and loss salting his tears.

"Oof" Suddenly Ethan's face is in Benny's chest, pulled in by a hand on his arm.

"Don't take it personal E. I don't know where any of these feelings came from," Benny explains. His voice chokes up. "Fuck, I hate having feelings," Benny complains before devolving into sobs.

Ethan hears the chink of the mug being placed on the tile. And Benny's other arm wraps around Ethan as they continue to cry together. Crying for different reasons. Neither able to offer platitudes or comfort, beyond their presence.

Ethan isn't sure exactly how much time has passed, but he's starting to get cold. When he tries to tug a corner of the blanket around himself, Benny opens the blanket up like wings and wraps Ethan up. They're so close, physically, but it doesn't seem to phase Benny at all.

"Why we in the bathroom?" Ethan asks.

"Puking earlier," Benny answers.

"Heh." Ethan should've been there when the emotions first started coming back to Benny. "This is the least manly thing we've ever done," he says.

Benny laughs. "Yeah maybe. And that's saying something for us."

They end up crying together until both starving.


	8. Cookies

**Benny and Ethan's relationship isn't really resolved yet. So... more story to come. Read and enjoy!**

* * *

 _MBAV Fan66: I think something like that would change their friendship, but I haven't really explored it yet. Spoiler, I'm thinking that it will eventually bring them closer together, but immediately after things are gonna get hella awkward. like hella hella._

 _Century'sRain: Not stopping yet :)_

 _TiredOfBeingNice: I'm not sure what else is going to happen. But I'm having fun finding out as I write it :-p_

* * *

 _The cure:_

Benny is doing his homework at the Morgan's dining room table with Ethan and Jane. Rory's stuff was still messily spread out in front of one chair but the vampire himself had vanished. Despite Rory's apparent disregard for his education, Benny knew for a fact that Rory was working hard to maintain a solid D- average in all of his classes.

One the unintended side effects of the _permotionem dilatione_ was that Benny didn't get bored and listless while doing school work. So he just did it. Who would have thought severe emotional trauma would result in better grades. Benny was even more surprised to find that he actually knew a lot of the answers without struggling.

"Trade?" Ethan asks holding out his Spanish assignment. Ethan always seems so pleased when they go over each other's work. He's such a nerd.

"Two more questions," Benny replies, speeding up.

The doorbell rings. "I'll get it," Mrs. Morgan calls out from the kitchen. She squeezes Ethan's shoulder as she walks by, and Ethan shrugs off the touch. But everyone know he's not actually bothered by the parental affection as he's not physically affected.

Benny catches Ethan staring at him. "What?"

"Nothing. Just waiting for you to finish." Ethan deflects. Benny nods.

"And," Ethan continues, a stupid grin on his face, "You're beautiful and I like looking at you."

Benny smiles in what he hopes passes as bashful. He can't blush. He can't feel whatever feeling that would make him feel, so he fakes it.

"Gross," Jane says in an obligatory manner. There's no real heat behind the comment. In fact she doesn't look up from her history book.

"Well you can watch my gorgeous mug while I finish my last Spanish question," Benny adds, over conscious of his expression since he knows Ethan is watching.

"Look at you three studying hard," Grandma says as she enters the dining room. Mrs. Morgan trailing behind her. She has cookies, but she hasn't said why she brought cookies.

"I just need to check the soup," Mrs. Morgan excuses herself as she rushes off to the kitchen.

"Bring plates back with you dear," Grandma requests. "How are you feeling today, Ethan?"

Ethan doesn't catch that it's odd for Grandma to only ask him. "Uh.. fine?" Ethan shrugs. He continues in a whisper, "No visions or anything."

They haven't told Ethan that his parents know the secret now.

"Plates, Evelyn," Samantha says setting a stack of small plates next to Evelyn.

"Thank you,' Grandma replies. She spreads out three plates and places cookies on them. One of the cookies has a green tinge that makes it immediately obvious to Benny and Jane that it's been doctored.

"I brought some cookies for you kids since you've been working so hard." She hands the green cookie to Ethan. Again he just doesn't seem to notice.

Cookies are weird now. Some part of his physiology craves simple sugars. The brain is literally powered by nothing but glucose. But, they're… food. And Benny has had trouble eating when he's not really hungry. Jane is breaking off pea size pieces of her cookie that she slowly chews.

"Benny before I leave I wanted to make sure you knew about your dentist appointment next week," Grandma says. It's a lame excuse and really she doesn't need an excuse to wait for Ethan to finish eating.

"Can I have another one?" Ethan asks finally.

Benny has been planning this. What he'll say to test if Ethan is still cursed, and what he'll say to cheer him up if he is. "I read on Too Cool News that Radical Amphibians That Fight Evil the cartoon got canceled," Benny blurts out, wide eyes watching Ethan curiously.

"Oh kay," Ethan replies. And no other response.

"Oh thank god," Jane says, setting down a highlighter. She storms off upstairs with no further explanation.

"Samantha," Grandma calls out. "I think you'll want to come in here."

"I didn't think it was that big of news. I mean it sucks."

"You've been cursed," Benny supplies. "And now you're not."

Grandma explains what has been happening. Ethan seems a bit stricken. He grabs Benny's hand, and Benny let's him. The curse is off but he doesn't know how to talk about… this.

Jane comes back with a journal, which she slams down in front of Ethan.

"Now that you're better, I want credit for all the times I didn't say the perfectly reasonable thing I wanted to," Jane explains.

Benny peaks over Ethan's shoulder. It's like a diary of evil thoughts:

 _Monday: Ethan decided to eat a whole bag of marshmallows. Did not call him fat._

Ethan flips through the book, "This is so… sweet? Jane." Ethan mumbles. "Wait," Ethan is on the first page. "This is the day I asked Benny out. I couldn't've been cursed then." When Ethan looks to Benny for confirmation, he can only smile.

"Oh no," Ethan says quickly. "It wasn't real?"

Benny opens his mouth to speak, but his hesitation is apparently all Ethan needs to hear. He runs out of the room and stomps up the stairs. Benny has no idea what to do. He starts to follow his best friend, but Grandma's hand on his shoulder stops him.

"I'm sorry dear, but he won't want to talk to you right now," Grandma explains. "Pack up your stuff and let's go home."


End file.
